By Gustavo Buenrostro
The History Circle is not a brand new club.
The History Circle emerges from the ashes of its former club and begins to get its bearings back.
The original club began in 2009 with professor Robert Arias as the advisor. However, Arias suffered from a stroke and the club ceased activity for three years.
The students wanted to bring it back, so ELAC students Rafa Tapia, Mario Gonzalez and Professor Carlos A. Ramirez started it up again last spring semester.
They had to go through the process of restarting the club and getting recognized by Associated Student Union. The school believed the club was still active after 2012, but had ceased activity since there could not be a replacement found for Professor Arias at the time. Gonzalez said that they had to follow protocol and they needed to be represented in ASU.
With all of that finished, they could have more time to focus on what the club will do.
This semester, Mario Gonzalez is the president or consul, Rebecca Galvan is the vice-president or proconsul and both Professor Ramirez and Professor Arias are co-advisors. The club also has a treasurer, Giovanni “Gio” Malta, a senator, Zuri Lopez-Sanchez, a tribunal, Katherine Le and an alternate, Johanna Calderon.
Gonzalez hopes to have a reenactment of how slave ships were transported to the Americas. The plan is to put students in the positions of slaves while they were on the ship. They want to show the cruel way slaves were transported and the way they were treated.
Something like this takes planning, and before they can do anything, the club must speak with the dean about going through the proper channels to do this. Then they must go to the athletic department because the club wishes to use the football field for its reenactment.
The History Circle is optimistic and hopes to have this event toward the end of the semester, but needs more people to join, so they can have enough people for the reenactment. The club would also like to plan field trips to other colleges.
The club is looking for new members to join and students don’t have to be a history major to join. They are an inclusive club and will take in anyone who wishes to join and is interested in history.
Some of the club’s goals are to show people that history is not boring and can be as interesting as anything else.
Gonzalez says a reason for the club existing is so that students can develop friendships and build a network among students. Another reason is so that the teacher can connect with his students better.
“Having an instructor connect with the students is part of their (sic) job, not the administrators,” Professor Arias said.
As of now, they are still organizing and experimenting with what to do at meetings.
At their meetings, they have open discussions about anything that is going on with the students’ lives. It doesn’t have to be about history in particular, but can be anything a student would like to share. After this, the club discusses plans they have for the future.
The History Circle club meets on Thursdays at 12:15 p.m. at the F-7 building in Room 219.